The University of Hawaii has been selected to be the host of the 3rd Annual SNRP Meeting to be held on May 27-29, 2003 in Honolulu, Hawaii. The overall objectives of these SNRP annual meetings is to showcase the various research projects and programs within the different NINDS supported minority institutions, to introduce the young SNRP investigators to leaders of the neuroscience community, and to provide opportunities for SNRP investigators to present their work before a critical, yet supportive audience. The select nature of this meeting will explicitly address the following aims and objectives: 1) To allow SNRP investigators the opportunity to present their research to their peers in a national setting; 2) To stimulate collaborations between SNRP investigators from different SNRP programs and to encourage exploration of new areas of study; 3) To discuss and disseminate information on the re-competition of the second series of SNRP awards; and 4) To invite distinguished neuroscientists to present their overview knowledge and cutting-edge progress in their areas of expertise. This 3rd Annual SNRP Meeting will follow the basic format of the two previous Annual SNRP meetings. In Day 1, the Program Directors and NINDS will discuss topics of interest such as the re-competition of the SNRP awards (AIM 3). A concurrent session on "Innovations in Neuroscience Techniques and Methods" in Day 1 will facilitate AIM 2 for those SNRP investigators who are exploring new approaches to their research work. The four major scientific sessions in Days 2 and 3 will address AIM 1 and AIM 2, and will have the quality of a select mini-symposium. In addition, the poster sessions will be sorted to relate to the platform session. Finally, to achieve AIM 4 of this proposal, each session (or subsection) will be presented and moderated by a distinguished neuroscientist, who will provide an expert overview of the area of study prior to the fifteen-minute presentations given by SNRP investigators. This format was adopted, given our present uncertainties as to the number of presenters who will be attending this meeting; despite this, there is a great likelihood that the above aims and objectives will be achieved.